The news is full of it, excitement seems high, and I really don’t get it. I’m not against space-related research, but why suddenly the moon? And why send people there? Can someone fill me in on what’s to be gained or why one might be excited about it?
Allow me to use the linked article for my questions.
There have been three primary drivers of renewed interest in the Moon. The first was the discovery and confirmation in the 1990s and early 2000s that water ice is likely to exist at the lunar poles in permanently shadowed craters. The presence of abundant water, providing oxygen and hydrogen resources, has given space agencies a new reason to explore the poles.
Yea but so what? Hydrogen is literally the most common thing in the universe, no fucking way there is also some on the moon 🤯. Then what’s so spectacular about moon ice, water, or even oxygen? And why does it need people to explore it?
A second factor has been the rise of China’s space program, which has sent a series of ambitious robotic missions to the Moon that have both landed on the far side and returned samples from the lunar surface. China has made no secret of its interest in sending astronauts to the Moon, leading to competing efforts between NASA’s Artemis Program and China’s lunar station goals.
Again why? Is this some repetition of the Cold War Soviet-US competition?
Finally, there has been some interest from private companies in the commercial development of the lunar surface, both to exploit resources there but also for other purposes. This has stimulated investment in private companies to provide transportation to the lunar surface, including ispace, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, and Firefly.
Exploiting resources has to be a joke, right? Do they want to sell us the newly found moon water? The only point I get is the tourism aspect. Because, of course, I always encourage billionaires to pursue dangerous hobbies 😊
Because the moon has no atmosphere, it gets rare elements that cost $$$$$$$$$$$ to make here on earth, which can be used for energy. As we learn more about fusion, we’ve determined some of the fuel we might eventually use can come from the moon, not to mention nearby asteroids and metals that can be used for cheap manufacturing. Space has a lot of cheap scrap metal. Like, economy crashing cheap, in some cases.
Like war, pushing into new environments requires and creates new branches or research and technology, such as better ways of recycling air, water (looking at you, Arizona, italy, india and any landlocked country), waste, etc. New medical breakthroughs such as 3D printing proteins for remote medicines and vaccines, new power sources such as micro reactors, new space infrastructure such as Skyhooks, and baby’s first terraforming research, as we are currently destroying the only known habitable planet known across roughly 13 billion light-years :)